Chapter 42: Thoughts in the Necklace
Dragonflies fly over in the sun, a green rice field, and the scenery of Q County is like this. The bamboo altar in the corner of the Jin family's courtyard has been stubble for 6 years. It's early spring again, there is no wind on this day, the blue sky is cloudless, the sun that has just come back from the Tropic of Cancer brings back a little warmth again, Jin Yucheng is wearing a down jacket, and is holding tea scissors to carefully trim the dwarf bamboo in the bamboo jar.
"Grandpa, what are you doing?" A young and sweet voice came, Jin Yucheng hurriedly put down the tea scissors in his hand, looked at Lu Haowan in a red cotton jacket staggering towards him, hurriedly trotted over to pick her up, and replied dotingly.
"Come, grandpa hug, Wan'er look at the bamboo that grandpa cultivated, is it beautiful?"
"It's so good, I want to cut it too!"
"Hahaha~ Wan'er, when you are older, grandpa will teach you!
After speaking, Jin Yucheng hugged Lu Haowan around the yard and taught her to know the flowers and plants she planted, including the tenacious wild curly cypress in life, the verdant and elegant podocarpus, the vigorous and simple boxwood, and the ancient plum of Ling Han and Aoxue, these are all his proud works, especially the ancient plum, which was specially purchased by his son-in-law on his 60th birthday, and spent a lot of money. At first, when it was sent, the shape was still a little out of harmony, but after his hands, it has become a masterpiece that does not lose to the master.
"Old Jin, it's time to eat!" was the voice of her lover, Mrs. Lu. Jin Yucheng didn't delay, and entered the house with Lu Haowan in his arms.
In the old-fashioned self-built houses, the living room and dining room are connected together, and the dining room is next to the living room, and now many commercial houses also continue this design. Unlike the tranquility outside, the living room was full of people. Everyone was smiling, as if today was a festive day. The large round table was already full of dishes, but the guests had not yet served them, and the kitchen was still busy, so they covered it with empty plates.
"You old man, you don't know how to chat with guests!" Mrs. Lu came out of the kitchen with a plate of small crispy meat, and when she saw Jin Yucheng walking in with Lu Haowan in her arms, she said complainingly.
Jin Yucheng smiled, even if he responded to Mrs. Lu's words. Mrs. Lu and the guests who came also knew very well in their hearts that Jin Yucheng had always disliked being lively. If anyone asks him for advice with "The Yellow Emperor's Neijing" or Lao Zhuang-related books, he can talk freely, and he will not participate in other chats.
In addition to studying, Jin Yucheng is dragged around the world by Lu Haowan, the granddaughter on the tip of his heart. Even Mrs. Lu said that he was the follower of his granddaughter. He wasn't annoyed, he responded with a smile, and then continued to be pulled around by Lu Haowan.
"Come on, come on, sit down!Lu Feng, greet your friends, all on the table!" Jin Shutong put the steamed sea bass in his hand in the middle of the dining table, and turned around to undress his apron to greet the guests sitting on the sofa talking and laughing.
"Okay~ Let's go, say on the table!" The man wearing a yellow sweater, a white shirt underneath, and a dark gray tie on his chest responded to Jin Shutong and organized the guests to sit at the table. The guests stood up, first walked to the table, and saw that Jin Yucheng was still holding Lu Haowan, so they all stood in front of the chairs, arguing for Jin Yucheng to sit on the upper seat. Jin Yu couldn't shirk it, so he hugged Lu Haowan and sat down, and the guests sat down.
"Thank you very much for coming to me today, my dad is too old to drink, please forgive me! My gratitude is in this cup of sake, dry!" Lu Feng raised the wine glass in his hand first, and the guests also took it and drank it all with him.
"Brother Lu Feng, you are too polite, we all know Jin Lao, and we respect him from the bottom of our hearts. You don't have to say these words, we won't let Jin Lao drink. Today is Xiao Wan's birthday, and we also take this opportunity to come and see Jin Lao, and also express the hearts of our group of juniors!" One of the men, who was wearing a beige suit and a dark gray tie, and a black toad mirror pinned to the outer pocket of his suit jacket, stood up and said.
Jin Yucheng smiled easily and beckoned the man to sit down. Lu Haowan, who was sitting in his arms, obediently listened to the conversation of the guests at the table, and did not speak, occasionally asked Jin Yucheng for a piece of small crispy meat, and someone with good things deliberately went to snatch the things in her hand, she was also generous, and gave it out casually, but she would stare directly at the person, and I would look at you without speaking, and see if you were so happy to eat the posture, which made the people at the table laugh.
After the meal, the guests sat and chatted for a while before leaving, except for the man in the beige suit who stayed behind to chat with Lu Feng about business. Jin Yucheng was dragged out by Lu Haowan again, maybe it was too boring, maybe it was getting late, Jin Yucheng and Lu Haowan's grandfather and grandson walked along the road in front of the door for a while, and then walked back. As soon as I arrived near home, I ran into a man in a suit who came out of the house with a displeased face. He saw Jin Yucheng walking directly past them without saying hello. Jin Yucheng didn't care, thinking that maybe he had drunk too much.
When I got home, Jin Shutong and Mrs. Lu were cleaning up the messy dining table, Jin Shutong counted Lu Feng's things, Mrs. Lu didn't say a word, Gu Zi cleaned the fish bones on the table, Lu Feng sat on the sofa, blushing, I couldn't tell if it was because of drunkenness or the conflict just now. Jin Yucheng later learned the name of the man in the suit from Lu Feng, called Wang Zhanjun. However, Jin Yucheng was indifferent to what happened, after all, this is a matter that belongs to young people, and young people will solve it themselves, he has been "retired" for a long time, and he doesn't want to ask about these "mundane things" anymore.
Jin Yucheng sat down on the sofa with Lu Haowan in his arms, and said to Mrs. Lu,
"Where's what I prepared, and where did you put it?"
"Oh, in the second drawer on the left side of the bedroom cabinet......"
Maybe it was because she saw Jin Yucheng sitting on the sofa and didn't mean to look for it, or maybe she felt that she had to look for it for a long time, and in the end she had to find it herself, Mrs. Lu gave up the idea of letting Jin Yucheng get it herself.
"Forget it~ I'll go by myself!"
After a while, Mrs. Lu came out with a small red box, and three clear gilt characters were printed on the box - "XX Fu".
"Now, here you go!"
Jin Yucheng took the box and said to Lu Haowan while opening it,
"Wan'er, grandpa gave you a 'baby'. I wish my precious granddaughter good health and good fortune!" Jin Yucheng took out a necklace from the box, the chain was made of slender pure gold, and the pendant was in the shape of a cute pig. Jin Yucheng gave the necklace to Lu Haowan and put it around her neck. Lu Haowan was very interested in this golden little pig, and her little hands kept playing with it, and from time to time she let out a pleasant laugh like a silver bell.
"Grandpa, this pig looks so good!"
"Dad, this has to cost a lot of money! Q County doesn't sell it!" Lu Feng's face recovered slightly, but it was still very red.
"This was custom-made by your father from Beijing! I got it a few years ago, and it was specially prepared for Wan'er's sixth birthday. Mrs. Lu explained on the side.
"Wan'er, you have to take good care of this thing, no one can give it to you, you can't look at it, you know?" Jin Yucheng put the golden pig in Lu Haowan's hand into the red cotton jacket and said to her with a serious face.
"Got it!Grandpa, I want to go out and cut bamboo~"
"Okay, grandpa taught you ......"
In this way, this gold necklace accompanied Lu Haowan until she became an adult. This is also the only memorial left by Jin Yucheng to her - when she was 20 years old, Jin Yucheng left due to a sudden heart attack! At that time, Lu Haowan was already working in other places, and she didn't have time to see Jin Yucheng for the last time, which became the regret of her life!